Ballads of a Cheechako / by Robert W. Service [electronic text]

The Ballad of Gum-Boot Ben

He was an old prospector with a vision bleared and dim. He asked me for a grubstake, and the same I gave to him. He hinted of a hidden trove, and when I made so bold To question his veracity, this is the tale he told.

"I do not seek the copper streak, nor yet the yellow dust; I am not fain for sake of gain to irk the frozen crust; Let fellows gross find gilded dross, far other is my mark; Oh, gentle youth, this is the truth — I go to seek the Ark.

"I prospected the Pelly bed, I prospected the White; The Nordenscold for love of gold I piked from morn till night;

Afar and near for many a year I led the wild stampede, Until I guessed that all my quest was vanity and greed.

"Then came I to a land I knew no man had ever seen, A haggard land, forlornly spanned by mountains lank and lean; The nitchies said'twas full of dread, of smoke and fiery breath, And no man dare put foot in there for fear of pain and death.

"But I was made all unafraid, so, careless and alone, Day after day I made my way into that land unknown; Night after night by camp-fire light I crouched in lonely thought; Oh, gentle youth, this is the truth — I knew not what I sought.

"I rose at dawn; I wandered on.'Tis somewhat fine and grand To be alone and hold your own in God's vast awesome land;

Come woe or weal,'tis fine to feel a hundred miles between The trails you dare and pathways where the feet of men have been.

"And so it fell on me a spell of wander-lust was cast. The land was still and strange and chill, and cavernous and vast; And sad and dead, and dull as lead, the valleys sought the snows; And far and wide on every side the ashen peaks arose.

"The moon was like a silent spike that pierced the sky right through; The small stars popped and winked and hopped in vastitudes of blue; And unto me for company came creatures of the shade, And formed in rings and whispered things that made me half afraid.

"And strange though be,'twas borne on me that land had lived of old, And men had crept and slain and slept where now they toiled for gold;

Through jungles dim the mammoth grim had sought the oozy fen, And on his track, all bent of back, had crawled the hairy men.

"And furthermore, strange deeds of yore in this dead place were done. They haunted me, as wild and free I roamed from sun to sun; Until I came where sudden flame uplit a terraced height, A regnant peak that seemed to seek the coronal of night.

"I scaled the peak; my heart was weak, yet on and on I pressed. Skyward I strained until I gained its dazzling silver crest; And there I found, with all around a world supine and stark, Swept clean of snow, a flat plateau, and on it lay — the Ark.

"Yes, there, I knew, by two and two the beasts did disembark, And so in haste I ran and traced in letters on the Ark

My human name — Ben Smith's the same. And now I want to float A syndicate to haul and freight to town that noble boat."

I met him later in a bar and made a gay remark Anent an ancient miner and an option on the Ark. He gazed at me reproachfully, as only topers can; But what he said I can't repeat — he was a bad old man.